Spotlight: Indie Fusion Artist Genevieve Miles Talks New Single “Tough Love”
THINK OF WHAT MAKES YOU FEEL — and then make a song out of it. Based between Birmingham and Bristol, Genevieve Miles has been doing just that since starting her career during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her sound is as poppy and bright as her visual assets are colorful and spontaneous.
The British artist debuted in 2020 with the double single “Magic Man” and “Sad Song,” following with “Storm Before” and “Sunshine in My Mind” in 2021. Between 2022 and 2023, she released a new set of tracks: “Good,” “Ocean” and, most recently, “Tough Love” and “The Past.”
Although Miles is just getting started, she’s learned a lot in the years that followed the uncertainty and stillness of the pandemic. The most precious lesson? Being honest.
Afraid of showing the intensity of feelings such as anger and grief, Miles initially heavily felt the expectation of being pure and fun as a young woman in the music business. But since then she’s learned to embrace the messiness of being human, which, according to her, is where all the best art is made from. As she sings in her song “Ocean,” “My love is so heavy, so hard to hold.”
In “Good,” the single that marked a turning point in her way to music, Miles accepts herself in all her glorious messiness and imperfection. “All I ever do is tr to be good / I’m not pretty as I should be / only here to make you comfy. Always on the wrong side of apologies, I’ll give you the victory as long as you’re not mad at me,” she sings in the track.
As a child, she was inspired by what her dad would play on his MP3 player: bands such as Dire Straits and The Kinks and acts like Linda Ronstadt and Kirsty MacColl.
“I make indie fusion, incorporating all the genres that make me feel things: jazz, funk, dance, rock, reggae, pop,” she shares. “I love taking inspiration from it all.”
But part of being a fusion artist involves not sticking to one formula. In fact, the only elements that tie Miles’ music together are her voice and her stories, and lockdown gave her brand new stories to tell.
“[‘Tough Love’ is] so heartbreaking, so full of hope and acceptance,” she says, feelings enhanced by Carlos de los Santos’ production, with whom she shares a love for indie artist Julia Jacklin.
“The grief of life moving on is neverending,” Miles shares. “I always come back to that song to help me in those moments. Life-changing moments are so scary and brutal, and it’s a kind of tough love when everything gets taken away — there are beautiful gifts buried deep in that grief.”
As Miles worked with de los Santos on her latest tracks, she joked that they kept each other sane and have continued trying to do sane ever since lockdown ended.
“Doing music is like running a business on top of your day job,” she explains. Prioritizing making music, playing gigs, and balancing everything that makes her happy is challenging at times, but it’s something she does gladly.
Calling Jack Antonoff a master of pop and dreaming of a feature with Kurt Vile, Miles hopes to follow up on her spring tour with more performances at festivals and gigs around the UK.
“I’ve got so much music to keep releasing next year, so I’m really looking forward to getting all of that out there,” she anticipates. “I just hope I can keep connecting with people through music — it’s so good for our wellbeing.”
And she’s determined to keep being honest — because being good never did Miles any good.
